Question: In your Feb. 26 column, you wrote about the prescription drug take-back program and that there would be another one in April. I’ve accessed the hawaii.gov/ag website, but there is no information about having the program again. Do you have any information about when there might be another program?

Answer: Hawaii will participate in the National Take Back Initiative on April 30.

On Oahu, there will be four locations accepting unused or expired medications for “safe, anonymous disposal”:

» Prince Kuhio Federal Building parking lot, 300 Ala Moana: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
» Kahala Mall, Kilauea Avenue end: 8 a.m. to noon.
» Town Center of Mililani, bandstand area: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
» Windward Mall, center court area: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The program is being offered by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration’s Office of Diversion Control, in conjunction with state and local law enforcement agencies across the nation.

The first National Prescription Drug Take Back Day took place in September, with more than 121 tons of unwanted pills collected nationally.

Call 541-1930 or go to www.justice.gov/dea/.

Question: I have called the Red Cross, the Japanese Consulate, and checked the various State Department websites, as well as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Japan) and have not been able to find anyone who can help me locate a Japanese resident of Sendai, who I’m afraid is a victim of the earthquake/tsunami disaster. Can you direct me to an office or agency who may be able to locate this person and her family?

Answer: Since you haven’t had any luck with the obvious agencies that should be able to provide information, try this: japan.person-finder.appspot.com. It’s a search site offered by Google.

To test it, we typed in “Watanabe” and the names of 100 people with that surname immediately popped up, with more in the database.

Next to the names of specific people, the status was indicated, such as, “Someone is seeking information about this person,” “Someone has received information that this person is alive,” “This person has posted a message,” “This person is alive” and “Unspecified.”

You can narrow the search by typing in a specific name, filtering by address or posting a mobile phone number.

People also can post information about someone.

At last check, the site said it was tracking more than 618,000 records.

This missing person database/finder was created by Google volunteers in response to the Haiti earthquake in January 2010. It also was used after the earthquakes in Chile and Yushu, China.

MAHALO

To an honest person. Recently, my husband, a retired senior citizen, had a cup of coffee at Starbucks in the Enchanted Lake Shopping Center in Kailua. He wasn’t feeling well that day but had to go to his mother’s house, for whom he is a part-time caregiver, nearby. Unbeknownst to him, his wallet apparently had fallen out of his back pocket. He traced his steps back to Starbucks later that day to look for it, but wasn’t feeling very optimistic. To his shock and amazement, someone had found his wallet and turned it in there! A big mahalo to the honest, wonderful person who did this. May many blessings return to you.

— Grateful